Saving Graces, by Elizabeth Edwards

This audio book was 13 hours and 42 minutes long and was narrated by Bernadette Dunne.

This is not the Elizabeth Edwards book in which she tells about her husband's affair. Senator John Edwards is a kind and idealistic husband and politician with a noble and intelligent wife in this book. I am not yet aware of how she portrays her relationship with John the philandering weasel, but he contrasted poorly with the hard luck missus he has in this one.

This is her story, from her upbringing in post-war Japan as the daughter of a Naval officer to the tragic death of her teenage son and her discovery of a cancerous lump just a few weeks out from the 2004 election, when her husband was the Vice-Presidential candidate. She is a smart and thoughtful woman who was devastated by the loss of her son, Wade, in a car accident that had nothing to do with alcohol. She deals with the day to day coping that goes on for years and never leaves her consciousness. This could have been a dreary book, but she is such a good writer that it never bores you. This is a solid 3 star book thtat rises to 4 if youu identify personally with either of her losses.

The Next Step in the Dance, by Tim Gautreaux

This audiobook was obtained from NetLibrary.com through the Alachua County Public Library. This book was 11 hours and 42 minutes long, and was narrated by Vernel Bagneris.

Paul and Colette Thibodeaux are a young married couple in an insular Cajun community called Tiger Island. Paul is a talented machinist who is happy with his work and just as happy to play his accordion and dance up a storm at the local pub. Colette is beautiful and bored, and deeply annoyed with her husband's contentment. One day she finds and excuse to leave him, and she makes her way to Los Angeles. She finds work similar to what she did at the bank back home, except there is more opportunity for advancement. She's smart, hard-working, and the boss likes her, so she is doing well when Paul decides to follow her. He is cool enough to give her some space, and he finds a job for his unique talents and he is doing well, too.

But not all that glitters is gold. They are both working for unscrupulous creeps, so they both end up returning to Tiger Island just after the jobs have all dried up. They are still separated, but now Colette is pregnant, care of a weak moment with Paul while they were living in California.

The hits just keep coming before they ever work it all out. It's a good story, but it seems to come from a different time. Paul seems way older than 24, and Colette does not seem like 23. They just seem so middle aged in their attitudes and demeanor. It was a big distraction that pecked away at the story's credulity. It had its good moments, but it was a little more work to read than I like a book to be. 2 stars.

One Mississippi, by Mark Childress

This audiobook was obtained from NetLibrary.com, through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 13 hours and 17 minutes long and was narrated by Jeff Woodman.

Daniel Musgrove gets to start his life over in Mississippi after his father is transferred to a new territory. Changing high schools is bad enough, but downgrading from Indiana to Mississippi is excruciating. But then he finds a friend, a local outcast named Tim Cousins.

It's 1973, and their high school is about to elect its first black prom queen. It's also the night that Tim and Daniel take a couple of girls to the prom, and Daniel gets his first kiss. After bringing their dates home, they accidentally hit the new queen, who was riding home on her bicycle. They flee in terror, come back to see that their nemesis, a popular jock and bully, is getting busted for it after stopping to see if she is alright. They let him hang, and when she comes to, she has a colorblind brand of amnesia: she thinks she is white.

The lunacy just keeps coming. This was very, very funny book, but it takes some very, very dark turns. Funny, thought-provoking, sad, disturbing: it gets a star for each, which makes 4 altogether.

No More Mr. Nice Guy, by Dr. Robert A. Glover

This audiobook was obtained from Netlibrary.com through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 6 hours and 38 minutes long and was narrated by Robert O'Keefe.

The long version of this title included this: A proven plan for getting what you want in love, sex, and life. Presumably, this was meant to boost Google hits. However, as a lifelong nice-guy/doormat, I could say, with apologies to Renee Zellweger, "You had me at the title".

Dr. Glover is a clinical psychologist who has been treating a lot of nice guys for years. And he recognized that they were suffering from the same sort of things that he was. They all had partners who they slavishly tried to please, which only gained them more scorn.

No friend to modern feminism, Dr. Glover blames this on an American culture which left raising boys to become men to women. When men started leaving the home to work in factories and offices, the boys had to stay home. They no longer worked with their fathers, learning the trades and learning to be men. Women raised their sons to be more passive aggressive, and when they grew up, they were incapable of providing leadership in their homes. They usually had a finger in the air to figure out what would please their wives.

This description may be a bit off-putting, but it is a legitimate challenge to our current nanny culture of risk avoidance that steals the spine from American males. It's a four star read.